Tag - Painting

My time ran out
for the
Challenge on Friday. I'll do a write-up of the trip in another post, for
now I just want to talk about the painting. As I expected, I was
nowhere near finishing both the Lootas and the Warbikers in time. I did manage
to get both squads done to a basic tabletop standard, there's the odd spot
where the undercoat is still showing, but nothing excessive. Both squads have
several different colours on them, and they clearly fit in with the rest of the
army, even if the lack of layers and highlights means they don't 'pop' as well
as the other models.

Admitting I wasn't going to get everything finished had an odd dual effect.
On the one hand, I didn't drive myself mad trying to paint models far faster
than I could manage. On the other, once I'd realised I wasn't going to get them
done I lost a lot of motivation to keep working on them. There were a few days
last week when I only did a bit of painting and I have to admit that as it got
to Thursday and Friday I was getting a bit sick of the whole thing. I did have
a back-up plan to paint a Big Mek with Kustom Force Field and Nob with Waaagh
Banner instead of the Lootas and Warbikers if I ran low on time, as they'd be
roughly the same points for far fewer models. I was cursing myself for not
choosing that option when I was still fighting to get the base layers done on
Friday evening.

From here, I'm
going to finish off the two squads, although I'll do them one at a time as I
have been previously. I'm having a break first though, and I imagine I'll be
working on them a bit more slowly than I have been recently. Once I've managed
that, I'll finally have 1000 points of fully painted Orks. I'm hoping that I
can get through the second 1000 points a bit faster than the first.

I've
finally finished the Trukk for the Nobz squad. It ended up taking me two weeks,
which is a fair bit longer than the last one. I
didn't find this one as heavy going as the last, but I clearly wasn't working
on it quite as hard.

I applied the base layers of blue on the bodywork and Leadbelcher on the
chassis and engine using an airbrush and the new GW airbrush paints. This saved
me a fair bit of time, and meant I got good coverage with the blue in only one
coat. It's the first time I've used an airbrush, so there was a bit of a
learning curve. Once I got it figured out though, it worked well. I also
experimented a little bit with a weathering powder around the exhaust outlets
and gun barrel. I was very light with it, but the effect worked reasonably
well.

I'm running out of time to get everything painted for the
challenge, and I've got Warbiker and Loota squads still to do. I'm going to
paint both squads at the same time with the goal of getting them at least to
tabletop standard before going to Nottingham. It's not ideal, but I have to be
realistic about how fast I paint and accept that I am unlikely to get them
finished in time. If I focus on one squad I could probably get that done, but
it would come at the risk of not even starting on the other.

After
two weeks of heavy painting, I've finished the squad of Nobz. Once again I got
over-enthusiastic and I've spent the last week telling myself they'll be done
in the next couple of days. I would like to say that I'm really pleased with
how they came out, but I ended up having a bit of an issue in the final stages
that took the shine off them for me.

When I was assembling the squad for undercoating, I stuck the arms and
weapon on to one of the models. Once I'd done that, I looked at it and realised
it was going to make it very difficult to paint the part of the torso behind
the weapon. All the Nobz I've painted up to this point have had a power klaw
and a slugga so they haven't had this problem, but this squad is armed with big
choppas and kombi-skorchas, which are wielded two-handed. I left the arms off
the other four models, so that I could paint their torsos properly. I did all
the painting, carefully keeping the various arms with the appropriate models,
and I was really pleased with how they had come out. Once I'd finished I went
to glue the arms to the models. I could only get the arms to fit properly on
one of the four models, and in the process I managed to spread glue around the
join (and in one case across the figure's shoulders), ruining the paint job in
the process. After all the hard work I'd put in, I was quite upset at this
point. In the end I had to fit the arms on as best I could, which for one of
them meant prising the model's head off. After that I filled the various gaps
with greenstuff and did some quick repair work on the paint. The overall look
of the squad is quite good, but there are some nasty flaws if you know where to
look (which of course I do so that's all I can see).

I tried a couple of new methods with the painting on these models. I added a
green glaze to the skin once all the highlighting was done, and I like the
effect it has given me. The skin is just slightly darker than it was, and the
highlights are not quite as harsh. The material wrapped around the weapon hafts
has been painted yellow, where previously I would have used brown. As I was
working on the squad I realised I didn't have much yellow on them, so I decided
to put some on the weapons. I wanted it to look dirtier than the yellow I
usually use, to show that the weapon hafts are regularly handled and not
regularly cleaned. I gave them one base coat of Averland Sunset, where I
usually use two, and then a wash with Agrax Earthshade and highlight with Yriel
Yellow. I like how it has worked, it's very much what I was aiming for.

Next I'm going to do the Trukk for this squad. I was considering putting it
off after doing the last one, but
now I think I'd rather have the squad and transport complete before I move on
to the next unit.

I
finished the Trukk for the third squad last night. As I predicted, there was no
way I was going to get the whole thing done last weekend. I was fighting for
motivation to get through this model, it became something of a slog. I did
manage to keep going though, and it has come up well in the end. Now that the
third squad has their transport, I can field a rather small but fully mounted
Ork Horde detachment.

It took over a week to get the whole model done, which was longer than I
wanted and means I need to get a move on with the rest of the painting. Next on
the list is a squad of five Nobz. Hopefully batch painting will mean that I can
get them done rather faster than the one week per model rate I managed when
painting the Nob for
Squad Three. After the Nobz, I had intended to paint another Trukk so
they'd have a transport as well. Given how much of a fight the one I've just
finished (especially for only 30 points worth of model), I'm seriously
considering putting it off until I've done some other models first. I'll see
how I feel once the Nobz are finished.

After
several days of good hobby progress, I've finished the Nob for the third squad
of Boyz. He's come up well, and I was pleased that I didn't slack off or lose
momentum. I did however pay something of a price for all this painting, by the
time I finished the model last night one of the muscles in my back was killing
me. I think I've been hunching forward as I work on the model and because I was
sat in the same position for a long time and several days in a row something
was bound to complain eventually. I'm going to have to work on my posture while
I paint, as I can't really afford to slack off the pace to get everything
painted in time for October.

Next up is the Trukk for the third Boyz squad. I'm hoping to make a lot of
progress over the weekend, provided I don't cripple myself in the process. I'd
like to say I'll get the whole thing done, but I think that may be a bit overly
optimistic.